Melbourne City coach Patrick Kisnorbo has backed his Socceroos-studded attack to find their rhythm as the reigning A-League Men champions attempt to kick-start their title defence.
Heading into the season, City added Mathew Leckie to golden boot winner Jamie Maclaren and Andrew Nabbout in a mouth-watering forward line.
Three games in, City have one win, one draw and one loss with two goals between the three starting attackers, but Kisnorbo suggested expecting “automatic success” was unrealistic.
“There’s no expectation on that front three at all from me. All I expect is for them to train hard,” he said.
“Things take time, sometimes you need to be patient.
“I can’t give the answer of what’s going to happen next.
“All we can do is keep training to put the players in positions that might have a chance (to score).
“All I know is we have quality players, they’re good guys, they train hard.”
Kisnorbo stressed the trio’s quality didn’t mean things would “just click” straight away.
“The reality is it doesn’t work like that,” he said.
“Do we want it to work? Of course.
“Do we train hard? Yes.
“Is there expectation from me from them? No.
“I want them to express themselves and we have to be patient.”
City have Marco Tilio among options off the bench but Kisnorbo backed his experienced starters “100 per cent”.
“Just because someone doesn’t get on the scoresheet (doesn’t mean) they had a bad game. It’s not time for change,” he said.
“I believe in every player that we have here, and one thing that I will do, I’ll stand by them and give them time.”
Kisnorbo was philosophical after Saturday’s 1-0 loss to an organised Western United and was confident the tide would turn.
“We’ve had a lack of games leading up to the season where you’d like a few more games,” he said.
“It’s just getting in the rhythm that we want and sometimes, things like this happen.”
City face a tight turnaround to Wednesday’s clash with Perth Glory at AAMI Park but Kisnorbo didn’t believe he’d need much squad rotation.
Manuel Pucciarelli is unlikely to feature, with Kisnorbo saying the Italian attacker needed more time after a groin niggle and a late arrival to City.
